(Newser)
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Critics are absolutely burying After.Life, a dull horror flick about a woman who may be dead. And no, the stupid dot in the title is never explained. Here’s what they’re saying:

What seems like it ought to be a vaguely silly movie “takes itself so seriously it’s practically embalmed,” writes Stephen Whitty of the Star-Ledger. Liam Neeson in particular “seems to have convinced himself that he’s in some rare, rediscovered Beckett play—Krapp’s Last Autopsy.”

Is Christina Ricci's character dead or alive? You can debate it endlessly, writes Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times. “I think the correct solution is: Anna is a character in a horror film that leaves her state deliberately ambiguous.”

The movie’s “neither horrific enough to scare, nor psychologically thrilling enough to even register a pulse,” writes Betsy Sharkey of the Los Angeles Times. At one point, Anna wonders aloud if she’s in hell. “It’s tempting to scream, ‘Yes, Anna, and you’re not alone.’”

But if nothing else, give Ricci credit, writes Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly. “She has to operate, unfazed, in close-up nakedness much of the time, while the camera practically licks her pale skin.”